PrunePicker: Greg Reynolds. A serious case of cancer.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Greg Reynolds. A serious case of cancer.

Greg Reynolds is an old friend from the Jefferson Corner Liars Club. He has had a very serious operation, for cancer, and is scheduled for three weeks of extreme radiation treatment. Greg is an independent contractor and does not have medical insurance. His friends at the Liars Club are setting up a drawing for a Ruger 50th Anniversary 1022 rifle.

This rifle has been the best 22 rifle in the world for fifty years. Be sure to buy a bunch of chances! All of the money raised will go to Greg.

Yesterday there was a benefit affair for Greg in Arcadia.

Three bands played. The benefit went all day. Greg was able to attend. Picture above was taken at the benefit. Greg's family and many friends were in attendance. The video below was taken at the party.

PS Good news for Greg. All of us are happy. Greg went to a doctor in Shreveport today (Monday). Previously Greg had been told that he had four to five months to live, with the chance that three weeks of harsh radioactive treatment might help him. Today he was told that a treatment every two months would keep him going for several years. Needless to say Greg is very very happy. Aren't we all?

Maybe Greg will win the rifle and use it for many years.

4 comments:

UnknownJuly 25, 2016 at 8:04 PM
Hello Chuck Monson! Came across your blog while Googling McKinley Home for Boys for my husband who lived there from 1936 to 1942. He joined the US Navy in 1944 and served in the Pacific. We have been married since 1953 and are still getting around on our own power. November hope to celebrate our 82d and 90th years.
We enjoyed seeing the pictures of McKinley you posted and learning about your time there. There are probably not very many boys still around who lived there in the 30s. We are CA natives and live in the San Diego area although we spent most of our married life in LA County. We have 2 sons and 5 grandchildren So far. Lloyd retired from trucking in 1985 and I retired from my job as a librarian. We enjoyed RVing and took two swings around the country in 1985 and again in 1987. Our last RV was a fiver trailer which we sold about 6 years ago. I still miss RVing but got to be too much like work. Lloyd enjoys playing tennis twice a week and I still work as a library one day a week at a local community college. Our main exercise is walking. Our sons are not nearby and our grandkids are spread out all over the country. We get together as often as we can.
Your blogs are very interesting and it is inspiring to read about your very full life in LA. We have been in your state twice and enjoyed very much the hospitality and slow paced way of life. We have never lived anywhere except CA, but are very happy in San Diego area and do not miss LA madness at all.
McKinley is now located in San Dimas as you probably know. We wonder how many boys from the 30s may still be around? Lloyd says his time there was some of the best of his young life. His single mother had to work and his father had left the state. McKinley provided a comfort zone and structure to his life. He worked at the ranch nearby and enjoyed being with the horses. After WWII he went back to the Valley to see what remained but of course everything had changed dramatically.
Lloyd reads my computer screen but has no interest in mastering Mouse Technique or the glitches that we encounter everyday on the Internet! If you care to reply, please send your email to janetpina@roadrunner.com
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bigfootJuly 26, 2016 at 7:53 AM
How to buy chances?
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My niche in the Blogosphere.

My blog is about me, my family, my interests, my opinions, and my daily activities. My name is Chuck Monson. I am a native born Californian. I worked in the oil exploration and production business and am now retired and living in Ruston, Louisiana. I am a 91 year old widower. I blog because I really enjoy it. Posting gives me a schedule and is a wonderful make work project. I like pictures, both the taking and looking at them. I really like old historic pictures. I enjoy a good photograph. I like putting pictures and text together in a way that is hopefully interesting to others and that will be interesting to me in the future. I like to be silly now and then. It is also putting my memories down on paper. My blog serves as a diary. I have used it for a reference quite a few times.

I do mix it up. Some of my blogs are “what I had for breakfast”, some are just pictures, some are items of genealogical nature, and there are items from my family history. I have a history of the Munson/Monsons in America. The study of this history has led me to the discovery of much American history that had previously been unknown by me.

I have had a lifelong interest in history, archeology, philosophy, religion, politics, architecture, technical subjects, music, food, and sports. I spend time every day reading blogs and posting to my blog. I do not pontificate on religion or politics because I do not consider myself wise enough to try to persuade others to my beliefs. My beliefs are quite nebulous anyway.

I was started on blogging by my late son, Christopher David Monson. Chris wrote the blog "snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition" There is a link to his blog above. I look at Chris's blog often. I have read most of his posts.

My adult years.

I married Jackie Lois Ireton in 1944 in San Luis Obispo, California. I met her on a blind date when I was taking amphibious training at Moro Bay. We have been blessed with four children, nine grand children, and nine great grandchildren. They are an exceptional group. I love them and I am proud of them.

I was an army combat engineer (infantry with shovels) during World War II. I served in the Pacific. I was wounded on Peleliu Island helping the marines on Bloody Nose Ridge. I was shot in both legs just above the knees. The wound locations indicate that I was not running away.

I received a BSME in 1950 from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. Jackie received a PHT. (pushing husband through.) I retired from oilfield work in 1985. Jackie and I moved into a fifth wheel trailer and enjoyed the RV lifestyle until Jackie's health failed. We traveled across the continent 3 1/2 times. We spent a summer as volunteers at Acadia National Park. For 17 years we helped build an Escapee RV park in Chimacum, Washington. Jackie passed away in 2007. We had been married 63 years. We were married on June 3, 1944. I still live in our fifth wheel trailer. It is parked in the yard of my daughter Kerry's home in Ruston, Louisiana. It is by far the nicest RV park that I have ever lived in.

My teen age years.

I was born in 1925 in Pomona, California. Pomona is on the east edge of Los Angeles County. It is halfway between Los Angeles and San Bernardino and halfway between the mountains and the beach. I thought that it was great to be an hour from snow covered mountains and an hour from the ocean surf.

In my days of growing up, Pomona was completely surrounded by orchards and truck farms. Oranges, lemons, grapefruit, peaches, apricots, olives, persimmons, and walnuts. Watermelons and strawberries. During the depression I had many meals from the orchards.

They say that you cannot go back home. That is true of the Pomona Valley of my youth. Because it is no longer there. Most of it is now covered with asphalt and stucco buildings.

My ancestors.

I am getting more and more into genealogy. I have a trove of information on the Munsons/Monsons. My father is buried in California. His father by adoption (He was an uncle.) is buried in Kansas. His natural father is buried in Kentucky. So I have two grandfathers. I have a grandfather and four great grandfathers buried in Kentucky, one great buried in New Jersey, and three greats buried in Connecticut. I have two greats buried in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England. I have been led to believe that my ancestors before that came from Denmark and Normandy.

Captain Thomas Munson was the first Munson to move to America. He was baptized in Rattlesden, England in 1612. The baptismal font is still in use. He served in the militia in the Pequot Indian Wars in 1637. He served in the militia all his life and reached the status of Captain. His signature is on the founding document for New Haven, Connecticut.

In 2011 I visited New Haven and took pictures of his gravestone. In May 2012 my oldest daughter Nancy Ann escorted me to England and France. We visited Rattlesden and I took some pictures of the Captain's baptismal font.

Why is the old prune picker living in Ruston, Louisiana?

In 2006 my wife Jackie was in poor health. Jackie had kidney failure and was on dialysis. She had heart problems for some time with A-fib. She had fallen and broken her hip. She had broken ribs and vertebra just moving around normally. My family thought that I needed help caring for Jackie. My daughter Kerry and her husband John offered to park our trailer in their backyard in Ruston and help. Jackie and I accepted their kind offer. My daughter Nancy accompanied Jackie in an airplane flight from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to Ruston. My son Mike took time off to help me pull our trailer for five long days to our new home. We were and are grateful. We enjoyed our new home very much.

Unfortunately and sadly, Jackie passed away in six months. I had sold our truck and was permanently parked. I was ready to give up full time RVing anyway. It is very pleasant in Ruston and I am close to family. So that is why I have been living in Ruston, Louisiana since October 2006.